It is very close to finals season. No, not the NBA Finals. I’m talking law school.

I plan to enjoy this weekend (by “enjoy,” I mean, not study). But this attractive prospect of a weekend will be followed by twenty consecutive days of ugly. We had four finals last semester that nearly killed us. This semester, we have five. Some of us might not make it.

We only have three days of classes left – a grand total of eight class periods is all I have left in my 1L year. Wednesday afternoon, at 2:30pm PST, we will have completed said classes. But as I’m approaching these suckers, two days before, Monday, finals season begins. That is approaching quickly.

I spent the biggest part of this afternoon printing off practice exams from our instructors. Taking practice exams is the secret to success on law school finals. The hard part is that you have to complete your outlines first, followed by learning what is in the outlines second, followed by funneling the outlines down even further to manageable terms third… and then, if you actually have time, you take practice exams. Many students never really get around to it all for all the exams – and that is completely understandable. It is a near impossible feat of endurance and balance.

I’ve kept up with my outlines on a weekly basis all semester, so with just a few classes left, my outlines will easily be completed. I hope to narrow them down to “attack” outlines by Wednesday evening (fingers crossed on that one). Then, I’ve developed a study schedule where I’ve apportioned about eight to ten hours per class just for trying to memorize my outlines. Finally, I’ve scheduled time to take about five practice tests for each class. All in all, I’ll be spending about twelve hours studying for twenty consecutive days. That’s the best I can do.

But for the next two days, I plan to rest. Then, it is time to seriously get to work.